Donald Trump Was Elected as President. What Does That Mean for Maryland?

Voting closed on Tuesday, November 5th. As Americans watched the results throughout the night and into the morning, it became increasingly clear who the president would be even though the last votes still hadn’t been counted. Donald Trump surpassed Kamala Harris with 312 Electoral votes and [50.3%] individual votes. He won both the Electoral College and popular vote, in contrast to his 2016 win against Hillary Clinton where Trump won by 77 electoral votes but ultimately lost the popular vote. 

Because of this victory, millions across America are concerned about how the next four years will look. Americans are asking questions like the state of abortion rights and gender-affirming care. Trump said in a tweet “EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND  WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT,” however, this isn’t convincing many. Maryland took this concern a step further and put abortion rights into their state constitution, a decision written onto the ballot for Maryland residents to vote on. Concerns about contraception were also addressed. In spite of Trump’s plans to change or override the Contraceptive Equity Act of 2018, securing women’s rights to affordable birth control devices, it is unlikely that he actually will due to the lengthy judicial process involved. This goes for all the states with similar laws, meaning, he will likely leave it up to states to decide. 

What about his economic policies? Trump plans to give tax benefits to the ultra-rich, cutting their taxes in what he calls “trickle-down economics,” where the rich get richer and ultimately it will benefit the poor. Maryland’s median household income as of 2023 is $102,000, the highest of any state. Still, these economic policies will hit Marylanders as he plans to raise taxes to the average household by at least 1.4%. These tax policies will affect people with lower-incomes, such as a 4.8% tax increase  for those making  between $0 and $28,600. Along with that, he plans to enact tariffs on outside imports, hitting technology prices hard, increasing laptop and tablet prices by 46%, and smartphones by 26%. Imports from China on sites like Temu and Shein will rise by 60% according to News Nation. 

Trump also aims to get rid of the Department of Education, which is a hard hit for school systems all across the country. The DoE published a budget plan of around $90 Billion for the 2024 school year. A large portion of this money goes towards low-income students and students with disabilities, along with improving students’ mental health and fostering diverse schools. The President-elect plans to redistrict these operations to other departments such as the treasury or health departments. Immigration activists say this will lead to “chaos.” This goes for state departments of education as well, he plans to abolish it altogether, including federal departments.

Lastly, Trump’s immigration policies are a major concern and actually affect more Marylanders than you may think. Maryland has an immigrant population of 16.7%, 32.7% of whom live here in Montgomery County. Trump plans to deport and jail all undocumented immigrants who are already in the country, no matter how long they’ve been here. Montgomery County has an estimated undocumented immigrant population of around 75,000, and 225,000 in the state. This could be tragic for MOCO and Maryland as a whole. These mass deportation policies could interfere with and impact friends and family and workforce, and create a sort of tension across Maryland. Undocumented immigrants currently have rights to healthcare (under some circumstances), education, driver’s licenses, jobs, and financial security under Maryland’s law. Hopefully, Trump doesn’t carry out the mass deportation he plans to and hopefully, Maryland will fight back against these policies. 

Overall, the end of an election was a surprise for some and a letdown for many. The future of politics holds many things, some good and bad, but what Trump is able to do is uncertain. With both a Republican majority in the House and Senate, and the Supreme Court it’ll be much easier for him to push his policies than ever before, but all we can do is hope for a bright future in American politics.